Angela Craig // 486

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Going West: True Crime" Episode 486 - Angela Craig

Introduction

In Episode 486 of "Going West: True Crime," hosts Heath Merryman and Daphne Woolsoncroft delve into the chilling case of Angela Craig, a 43-year-old mother from Colorado whose mysterious illness led to her untimely death. This episode unravels the intricate web of deceit, financial desperation, and calculated murder orchestrated by her husband, Jim Craig. Released on March 18, 2025, the episode provides a comprehensive overview of the case, highlighting key developments, pivotal moments, and disturbing revelations.

Background of Angela Craig

Angela Prey was born on April 15, 1979, in Dodge City, Kansas, into a large Mormon family as the youngest of ten children. On December 18, 1999, at the age of 20, Angela married James "Jim" Craig. The couple relocated to Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado, where they raised six children. Angela was known as a devoted mother, passionate about interior design, sewing, woodworking, and family activities. Jim, a dedicated dentist, owned Summer Brook Dental and was respected in his community.

Financial Troubles and Marital Strain

Despite a seemingly stable family life, Jim Craig faced significant financial challenges. By 2020, the pandemic exacerbated his financial woes, leading him to file for bankruptcy with debts totaling $2.2 million. To salvage his practice, Jim partnered with Ryan Redfern, a dental school friend, making Ryan and his wife, Michelle, key figures in the unfolding drama.

By early 2023, Jim's financial situation deteriorated further. He secured loans against their $1 million home and accumulated substantial debts, including over $300,000 owed to the IRS and $200,000 in credit card debt. These mounting pressures led to marital tensions, with Jim admitting to Ryan that he and Angela were undergoing a marital crisis. Despite this, Angela made efforts to mend their relationship, as evidenced by their affectionate text exchanges on March 1, 2023:

Angela to Jim [03:40]: "Your healing and happiness. This marriage is more important than my day. You are more important than my day."

The Onset of Angela's Mysterious Illness

On March 6, 2023, Angela experienced sudden and severe health issues. After consuming a protein shake prepared by Jim, which contained extra protein, she began feeling dizzy and unwell. Their subsequent text messages reveal Jim's initially supportive yet increasingly suspicious behavior:

Jim to Angela [11:42]: "I'm super shaky."

Angela to Jim [11:42]: "I usually did not add a scoop of caffeine to my protein shakes and reiterated that she felt really weird."

As Angela's condition worsened, Jim took her to Parker Adventist Hospital. Despite her deteriorating health, doctors found no immediate cause and discharged her. Concerned by the lack of answers, Angela continued to seek medical help, leading to a second hospitalization on March 9, where her condition became critical, necessitating life support.

Investigation Unfolds: Uncovering the Murder Plot

Ryan Redfern's suspicions were piqued when an employee discovered a suspicious package containing potassium cyanide delivered to the dental office on March 15, 2023. This revelation aligned with Angela's unexplained symptoms, prompting Ryan and Michelle to alert the authorities [19:22].

Jim's defense hinged on bizarre explanations for his actions. When confronted, he claimed the cyanide was a surprise ring for Angela and later suggested it was part of a "deadly game of chicken," a statement that raised significant red flags [22:39]:

Jim to Ryan [22:39]: "So if it wasn't my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try to work out. Exclamation point."

Further investigation revealed Jim's extensive research into poisons:

Jim's Google Searches [37:36]:

• "How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?"
• "Is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?"

Additionally, Jim ordered 10 grams of arsenic metal and oleandrin, a poisonous plant extract, to carry out his heinous plan [37:47].

Jim's Manipulative Actions Post-Arrest

Following Angela's death on March 18, 2023, Jim attempted to obfuscate the truth by implicating others and attempting to falsify evidence. His actions included:

• Threatening Detective Bobby Olson: Jim sought to discredit the lead detective investigating Angela's murder by attempting to hire someone to kill her [46:08].

• Involving Inmates: He coerced inmates to assist in his murder-for-hire schemes, offering incentives such as dental work in exchange for their compliance [48:20].

• Alleged Affair and Alibi: Jim's extramarital affair with Karen Kane further complicated his narrative. Karen, an orthodontist from Texas, was ruled out as a suspect after it was confirmed that their relationship never involved physical contact [41:05].

Despite his manipulative efforts, evidence overwhelmingly pointed to Jim's guilt. Investigators found Jim's home and office laden with incriminating evidence, including traces of poisons and fraudulent digital footprints.

Legal Proceedings and Current Status

In October 2023, Jim Craig pleaded not guilty to Angela Craig's murder. However, his legal troubles intensified when his defense attorney, Harvey Steinberg, withdrew from the case, citing Jim's persistence in fraudulent and criminal actions [50:41]. Subsequently, Jim's defense was taken over by attorneys Robert Working and Lisa Moses, who attempted to undermine the evidence by claiming the absence of drug remnants in the Craig household [52:08].

The trial, initially set for July 2025, faces significant delays and complications due to Jim's continuous attempts to interfere with the justice system from prison. His ongoing schemes to tarnish the reputations of involved officers and manipulate further legal narratives illustrate the depth of his deceit and malevolence.

Conclusion

Episode 486 of "Going West: True Crime" meticulously outlines the tragic and manipulative actions of Jim Craig, whose financial desperation and personal failings culminated in the calculated murder of his wife, Angela Craig. The episode underscores the complexities of financial motives in criminal cases and the lengths to which perpetrators may go to evade justice. As the legal battle continues, the hope remains that Angela's family will achieve the justice they deserve, providing some solace amidst their profound loss.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Angela's Text to Jim [02:03]: "This is the story of Angela Craig."

• Jim’s Plea to Ryan [27:09]: "We are doing some spring cleaning and we're also buying some new things to be able to replace those old things."

• Jim’s Final Text [22:39]: "If this wasn't my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try to work out. Exclamation point."

• Jim's Threat to Detective Olson [46:53]: "The worst, dirtiest detective in the world is on my case... We have to discredit her."

Further Information

Listeners interested in more details and visual content can visit the "Going West: True Crime" social media pages on Instagram and Facebook. Updates on the trial and ongoing developments will continue to be covered in upcoming episodes.

Disclaimer

This summary is intended to provide an overview of the podcast episode "Angela Craig // 486" and is based solely on the provided transcript. For comprehensive insights and nuanced discussions, listening to the full episode is recommended.

Transcript

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[Heath and Daphne]

I'm your host, he and I'm your host, Daphne.

[Wanda Sykes]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Heath and Daphne]

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Big shout out to Abby for recommending this absolutely wild case.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yes, I mean, the sheer evil of this case that we're going to share with you guys today is beyond comprehension.

[Heath and Daphne]

And this is the first case that we have covered that we have heard about where the murder investigation actually begins before the murder happens.

[Wanda Sykes]

This is a Colorado case that we have for you guys today and let's not waste any more time. Alright guys, this is episode 486 of Going West. So let's get into it. When a 43 year old mother in Colorado slipped into a coma In March of 2023, her grief stricken loved ones struggled to make sense of it. Otherwise active and healthy, she had been hospitalized multiple times with a mysterious ailment, dying within days. It wasn't until a shocking source revealed the contents of a suspicious package that a murder plot was uncovered before she even succumbed to her death. This is the story of Angela Craig.

[Heath and Daphne]

Angela Pre was born on April 15, 1979 to Elizabeth and Donald Prey in Dodge City, Kansas. She grew up in a big family. As the youngest of 10 children and born into the Mormon Church, the family's faith was very important to them. So on December 18, 1999 at 20 years old Angela married James Craig, who went by Jim. We're gonna call him Jim throughout this whole episode. And about eight years into their marriage, the two headed to Colorado, settling in the Denver suburb of Aurora. There, together, they welcomed six kids. And though her friends and family knew Angela as a homebody, she is remembered for always showing up for those she loved, according to the tribute to her life, family and friends, weddings, funerals, graduations, baptisms, birthday celebrations, reunions, service projects, holiday celebrations. She made sure to always be where she was needed, which is what she is still doing now and is now and will forever be missed. Angela was creative. She loved interior design. She loved sewing and woodworking. And she and Jim also loved to travel together, especially as their kids got older. But more than anything else, Angela loved being a mom. Her husband Jim, studied to be a dentist and eventually worked his way up to owning a practice that he called Summer Brook Dental, which wasn't very far from their home in Aurora. Jim was well known and loved in his community for being a caring and hard working husband and father, as well as a skilled dentist. And Angela herself actually was no stranger to the practice because she frequently helped Jim with his business and his marketing ventures. You know, a lot of wives do this, her husbands do this when one of them has a business or a practice. So it made sense that she bopped in there and helped a bunch. But unbeknownst to the community that Jim served, he was undergoing grave financial setbacks in his business. And this plays a big part in this story. Now, in 2020, amongst the chaos of the pandemic, and due to things having been going south for quite some time, Jim actually filed for bankruptcy on behalf of his practice. According to reports, his Debt had reached $2.2 million and he was forced to sell off the business. However, he did manage to convince a friend of his from dental school to buy into it, and they decided that they would go into business together. So he wasn't completely ridding himself of the practice. In 2022, Ryan Redfern became the co owner of Summerbrook Dental. Thus, Ryan and his wife Michelle became particularly close with both Jim and Angela. And if it's not obvious from how much I'm talking about Ryan already, he plays a major part in this story.

[Wanda Sykes]

But that obviously was not the end of the financial crisis that Jim had found himself in. Despite pulling in nearly $800,000 in 2019, Jim was forced to take out a loan for $675,000 against their $1 million home, and then took out yet another loan for $240,000. He also owed the IRS over $300,000 in back taxes and had over $200,000 sitting on his credit cards.

[Heath and Daphne]

God, this is stressing me out.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, that's a lot of money to be owed. He invested in three different cryptocurrency schemes in which he lost money and had also attempted to pull in some money from gambling. But nothing seemed to be making strides towards paying down his debt. So by early 2023, he was on the verge of bankruptcy yet again. Back at home, Jim wasn't faring much better and even confided in Ryan that he and Angela were in the midst of a marital crisis. So there was just a lot going on here. But despite the tension between them and the clear financial stress that Jim was putting them under, Angela was attempting to work on their relationship. She was just, you know, still being her loving self. In fact, in the months preceding her death, their text to each other showed tons of adoration and appreciation, as if they had been actively working on things. While conducting a search of Angela's devices, investigators found a text exchange between her and Jim discussing their relationship. And Angela told him, quote, your healing and happiness. This marriage is more important than my day. You are more important than my day. And this conversation was from March 1st of 2023, and it took place when Angela was in Utah visiting her sister Toni.

[Heath and Daphne]

And we are going to read a bunch of texts today. There are some that are just absolutely wild. So we do. We do dive pretty deep into this story and get a really good perspective of. Of what was going on in their relationship and really in the mind of Jim at this time. And actually, Jim, you know, because they had been having these issues. And like Heath said, Angela went to Utah in March of 2023 to visit her sister Tony. He asked Angela specifically not to discuss their issues with her sister and just to keep it private. And she kept her word. She did, however, confide in her sister that Jim was running their finances and his dental practice into the ground. Heath just let us know that Jim was kind of gambling sometimes to try to recoup some of their money. And Angela even admitted to her sister that he had taken a recent trip to Las Vegas in which he had burned $2,000 on gambling. So he was just sinking them further into debt.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, and I mean, this is really just not a good idea. You're already in so much debt. Like, it's not really a good idea to, like, you know, play a chance game with your money at this point, when you really don't have that money to lose.

[Heath and Daphne]

Yeah, it's almost like he's so desperate that he's willing to try anything, but doing something like this is really not helping. And I mean honestly, the chances of this helping him gain money is really, really slim anyway. Well, on March 6th, 43 year old Angela got back home to Colorado and right away a mysterious illness set in seemingly out of nowhere that day, on the morning of Monday, March 6, 2023, Jim mixed them up a batch of protein shakes with extra protein, which Jim said was because she was feeling sluggish. Then they worked out together and after leaving for work, Jim texted Angela saying, I just love you, I hope you have a great day and I'm so glad you're back in town. She responded saying, quote, I love you too. I think my body is not liking the caffeine this morning. My stomach feels fine, but my head feels funny and dizzy. Very strange. Jim said, it's been a week since caffeine for you. Maybe your body is saying, no thank you. I did a full scoop of the caffeine and a full big scoop of the B vitamins. Is that how much you normally take? Then he sent I'm super shaky. Angela wrote back that she usually did not add a scoop of caffeine to her protein shakes and reiterated that she felt really weird, to which Jim apologized. She continued on to say that her dizziness was getting progressively worse and that her eyes were having trouble focusing. Jim asked her if he should come home and and she said no and that she would be okay.

[Wanda Sykes]

Jim then suggested that she take some magnesium and asked if she had eaten anything, to which she responded, I had my protein shake and magnesium makes me weird. This is not hunger. She added that she felt drugged and Jim's response was odd and pretty eerie. He responded, given our history, I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn't drug you.

[Heath and Daphne]

Okay?

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. This is really weird. Like, what does he even mean by that?

[Heath and Daphne]

It's also a weird thing to have to clarify as a husband.

[Wanda Sykes]

Now, it's not been revealed what he meant by these comments, so we're very curious about that. But when Angela's condition worsened, Jim left work to take her to the emergency room at Parker Adventist Hospital. But when officers were unable to find anything wrong with her, she was released that same day and she was just sent home without any answers. The following morning, Tuesday, March 7, Jim went to work again as usual, and the text between them continued with Angela theorizing that maybe the dizziness and headache were being caused by a sinus infection. She admitted that she fainted that morning after Jim left for work, but that her eyes were focusing better than they were the day prior. Prior, though, her headache persisted and she was now seeing spots. Angela informed him that she made an appointment with her doctor, but that she wasn't able to get in until Friday. So three days later, Jim said that he spoke to a doctor friend of his and that it sounded like she had diabetes, which doctors tested for, but the test came back negative. That afternoon, she texted him. I'm having a hard time feeling okay being sick, and an even harder time knowing whether that's me or you. I could tell you were worried yesterday, but I guess I just think they sent us home and said that nothing was wrong. And you think I should be fine. I realize I could be reliving the past. It's just hard. And frankly, all of this is really scary. And I don't feel like we've addressed that at all. But I don't even remember most of yesterday. So maybe we did address it. I'm a crazy person, which is really.

[Heath and Daphne]

Sad because she's feeling something that is very real. She goes in, the doctors tell her that they have no idea what's going on with her, which is the worst thing ever. When you go to the doctor or the hospital, and they have no idea because you're like, well, something is wrong.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. And then Jim, on the other hand, is confirming as well, like, you should be fine. Like, there's nothing going on with you.

[Heath and Daphne]

Right. So she's saying, you think I should be fine, but I'm not. So I don't know what to tell you other than the fact that, like, I'm not feeling okay, and I don't know what that is like. That really is such a scary position to be in. Especially, you know, he's. From his perspective, could be looked at as trying to help her, you know, saying, oh, I asked my doctor friend, and maybe you have diabetes, even though she didn't. But it's kind of like, what do you really do from here? Especially as it gets worse? Because, well, at first it got a little better. So basically, during the duration of March 7, so the next day, as well as the day after that, March 8, her condition did seem to improve a little bit. But in the afternoon of March 9, Angela's condition declined rapidly. So she returned to Parker Adventist Hospital, this time with her symptoms worsening and her doctor scrambling to find the source of her ailments. She was required to stay overnight for the time period that she was hospitalized. Jim juggled work and home life with their remaining three school age children who still lived at home and also made an effort to stop by to see Angela as often as he could at the hospital. They texted back and forth frequently while she was there with Jim, telling her how much he loved her and missed her and that he wanted her home as soon as possible. On March 9, when she returned to the hospital, he texted her, quote, man, baby, you've got to stop scaring me like this. I love you so much. And I'm not used to all this.

[Wanda Sykes]

Excitement, as if that's like her choice that she feels like this.

[Heath and Daphne]

Yeah. And all this excitement like he's trying. It's almost like he's trying to make a light of it and she's sitting in the hospital miserable. It's so strange. So he brought her food and drinks multiple times. Remember this kind of just tending to her every need, making sure she always had something to eat and drink. And while Angela was in the hospital bed fighting for her life, Jim was her liaison to the outside world and the harbinger of updates for her friends and family. But his business partner, Ryan Redfern, and Ryan's wife Michelle, claim that they were attempting to manage these growing feelings of suspicion toward their friend Jim during this time, questioning his actions and how he was responding to the stress. Michelle, who held a PhD in nursing and was also a professor, was keeping tabs on Angela through Jim, wanting to offer her professional opinion and Support. On Friday, March 10th. So four days into her illness, Jim texted Michelle saying, quote, if this wasn't my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try to work out. Exclamation point.

[Wanda Sykes]

That's honestly like such a psychopathic thing to say, like, oh, this is actually fun for me that my wife, like, that's just not what you say, right?

[Heath and Daphne]

No, not at all. Not to anybody. But also not to your friend about your wife. Even though you're saying if it wasn't my wife, it still sounds like you're kind of enjoying it a little.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. Well, Jim also informed Michelle that he was becoming increasingly nervous about Angela's condition and that the doctors had tested for everything that they could think of, pumping her full of, you know, IV fluids and doing regular blood draws, and all of her blood panels came back negative and she was also negative for autoimmune disorders. So it was just this total mystery that was going on because her blood pressure continued to plummet. When Michelle asked about Angela's appetite, Jim mentioned that the only thing she had the day prior was a protein shake, which she later threw up. Frustratingly, with no updates, Angela was released from the hospital again on March 14, 2023. Her brother Mark drove in to help because Angela was feeling so weak. And the very next day, Angela fell ill again. This time, Mark brought her up to the University of Colorado Hospital where she was admitted around 11am and Jim arrived a short while later that afternoon. Her condition plummeted to the worst depths yet when she suffered a seizure and her vital signs crashed. So at this point, 43 year old Angela was placed on life support. Ryan visited them at the hospital and remembers Jim breaking down in tears while speaking to the doctors about Angela's prognosis. But despite watching this play out right in front of his eyes, he arrived at the hospital keenly suspicious of his friend and business partner. Because on the way there, Ryan received a phone call from one of his employees who had opened a package discreetly delivered to the dental office. And this employee had informed Ryan that the package contained a lethal toxin, potassium cyanide, which would take just 250mg, or perhaps even less to kill a human being.

[Heath and Daphne]

With this strange discovery in the early morning hours of 3 Thursday, March 16, 2023, Michelle and Ryan, remember they're married, reported to the Aurora Police Department headquarters to speak with a homicide detective, telling them that they believed that Jim was responsible for his wife's rapidly declining condition. Ryan let the police know that back in January. So a couple months earlier, Jim confided in him that he and Angela were having problems, but the most damning evidence came from one of their employees. So the day prior, March 15, when Ryan was on the way to the hospital to see Angela and Jim, one of the office managers contacted Ryan while he was en route. And this office manager, Jacqueline, was conveying a story that she heard from another employee, Caitlyn. So Caitlyn said that on March 6, the first day of Angela's mysterious illness, Jim stayed late at the office, which was something that he rarely did, and he was on a computer in an exam room with all the lights off. So obviously Kaitlin found this really odd because Jim had his own office and his own computer as well as a work laptop. So why is he on a different computer in an exam room? Then 30 minutes later, he texted Kaitlin telling her that a package would be coming that was personal and highly sensitive, and he asked her not to open it. And this package arrived on Monday, March 13, 2023. Kaitlyn came across the box in the office and found that it had actually already been opened by another employee named Katie, forgetting that Jim had asked them not to open it. And both Kaitlin and Katie later described seeing a biohazard sticker on a circular canister of potassium cyanide. So Caitlyn just sealed the package of potassium cyanide and gave it to Jim. But later, when she found out about Angela's declining health, she googled the side effects of potassium cyanide and saw that Angela's symptoms matched up. Now, initially, she kept her suspicions to herself, but when she heard that Angela was back in the hospital, she called Jacqueline to tell her what was going on. And then Jacqueline told Ryan. And I love the sleuthing going on here, because for anybody who doesn't know, there's absolutely no reason in modern day for a dentist to have cyanide. It's not like this is a chemical used for anesthetics or, like, disinfectants. Like, it really would only make sense to have this if you are mining for gold or silver or if you're fumigating and trying to kill pests. And even then, it's not common because it's so dangerous and deadly.

[Wanda Sykes]

And I'm sure most of you guys probably already knew where this was headed, but it's about to get even worse. And actually, before even heading to the police, Ryan told Jim that he knew what had been in the package that Jim ordered. And Jim denied this, claiming that the package was actually a ring for Angela and that he wanted it to be a surprise.

[Heath and Daphne]

That's not even remotely believable.

[Wanda Sykes]

Well, especially because two employees already saw the cyanide, which was very much not jewelry. When Ryan asked Jim why he would purchase potassium cyanide, Jim changed his story and claimed that Angela asked him to order it because she wasn't able to, because she didn't have the medical credentials.

[Heath and Daphne]

And I do want to mention that although it is not used in dental or medical practices, you can purchase it with such credentials because in theory, it could be used in a lab for, like, chemical experiments and studies. You know, it's a controlled substance.

[Wanda Sykes]

Right. But in this particular instance, it doesn't make any sense. And then it gets even worse because then Jim said that he was playing a game of chicken and that he didn't actually think that she would ingest it.

[Heath and Daphne]

An absolutely insane thing to say. He's essentially saying that he poisoned his wife by accident, but he didn't think that. Oh, I was just kidding. Huh?

[Wanda Sykes]

Right.

[Heath and Daphne]

You're kidding.

[Wanda Sykes]

The excuses that he's Making for the reason why she would be sick is just completely dumb. Well, then, the following morning, March 16, at 8.36am, while his wife lay in the hospital in a coma, Jim texted Ryan, quote, good morning, Ryan. Thank you for taking my patient load today. I want to make an urgent plea to you. If we were ever friends, please do this favor for me. Please don't talk to anybody about what we talked about last night, including any law enforcement officers. You are under no obligation to answer their questions unless you are served a subpoena. And you will do more damage than good to my family by continuing to insert yourself into this. Angela is gone and I am devastated. There's nothing that can bring her back, and I want desperately to tell you all of the details so that you can better understand what's going on behind the scenes with her. There is so, so much that you don't know that I wish you did. If you knew everything, this would make so much sense to you. But there's no use in telling you right now. Yesterday, I had to tell my kids their mom was not going to wake up and they were going to say their final goodbyes. That was at 6:45pm the hospital said we could bring the kids up to say goodbye at that time, but because of the investigation you opened by your incomplete investigation, the hospital made those poor, grieving, hysterical kids wait until after 10pm to see their mom. After an hour or so of saying goodbye to her, we went home just before midnight, only to have our house sealed against our entry by the police. Instead of getting to go home and find comfort, they were met with flashing lights and cold, unfeeling cops. And the kids, scared and confused, had to go to sleep at the home of a ward member. I have to hire a homicide attorney to make sure I don't end up being painted in the light that, you know, some hungry DA is anxious to paint me in because I'm most likely going to be charged, even though that is absolutely not what happened. Ryan, I understand why you did what you did. I do. I get it. But if you had come to me personally, man to man, instead of talking to everyone else about what you thought you knew, I might have let you in on some details that would have made you less likely to cause this horrible storm. For that, I am very, very mad at you. I've talked to you about this multiple times, but you don't seem to care. And now what you thought was responsible has become reckless and so, so destructive. And so I'm asking you if there was ever. Any love in your heart for me. Please don't make this any worse by talking to any officers or anyone else about this. Unless you are forced to and whoever else on the team you think is going to be questioned, I would ask that you privately ask them to honor this request, too. Also, please do not respond to this text message until I text you again. My friends, spring is coming up. We're doing some spring cleaning and we're also buying some new things to be able to replace those old things.

[Heath and Daphne]

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[Wanda Sykes]

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[Heath and Daphne]

And he's, like, shaming Ryan for going to the police because he's. He's acting like Ryan has more loyalty or should have more loyalty to. To him, to Jim than to doing what's right for somebody else, like, to do what's just. And. And what's good in this world. Like, if. If Ryan thinks that you committed a crime, he's. He should go to the police. He's doing right by Angela doing that. And obviously, Jim is coming from the angle of, I didn't do this and you're wrong. But okay, if you're wrong, then. Then the police will figure that out. Most likely. But you're not.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, absolutely. And Jim, you know, just obviously, you guys probably know Jim is the biggest piece of shit, and it just gets worse and worse because he keeps trying to manipulate people throughout this entire case.

[Heath and Daphne]

And that was such a long text. That was like a massive essay if you guys couldn't tell how long that took to read.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, he was doing massive damage control.

[Heath and Daphne]

Here, but also to try to say, make sure that nobody else at the office talks to police.

[Wanda Sykes]

I mean, and you could not be more suspicious by sending this text message to your business partner who is questioning your intentions.

[Heath and Daphne]

Oh, yeah. Well, the same day that Jim sent that text message to Ryan. Thursday, March 16th. 16th, Child Protective Services spoke with Jim and his kids individually. By the way, I want to mention that Angela is technically not yet deceased, but her family did say goodbye to her because she was in a coma, remember? But she has not passed yet at this point. So detectives believed that Jim was concealing arsenic, which is tasteless and odorless, in the protein shakes that he was making for Angela. And then later, they think he was bringing her drinks laced with potassium cyanide to the hospital that eventually killed her when the arsenic was not killing her quickly enough. When asked why he purchased the potassium cyanide, Jim offered the same flimsy story that he had told Ryan. That he and his wife were playing a deadly game of chickens. He also hinted that she was suicidal and that she had requested the poison and that she was considering ending her own life, though there is no evidence that this was true. And also, if you knew your wife was suicidal, you're buying her the thing that's going to kill her. You're buying her the poison that she's asking for, which absolutely, again, didn't happen.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. You're such a nice guy for doing this for her.

[Heath and Daphne]

What an insane thing to admit. And in the arrest affidavit, Jim claimed that he had asked Angela for a divorce back in December of 2022, so three months earlier, and that she had attempted suicide multiple times since leaving Jim to revive her.

[Wanda Sykes]

And he apparently didn't report any of this to authorities or doctors or anybody else.

[Heath and Daphne]

Yeah. So there's. There's no record of these overdoses or anything like this happening whatsoever. The day after her first stint in the emergency room, Jim said that he was gonna come home and bring her lunch, and added, I'll need to ask you what you're hungry for and bring it to you. I'm kind of feeling just a smoothie or something. Hoping that Angela would pick an option in which her poison would be soluble.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. So he's basically putting this into her brain, like. Oh, yeah, like a smoothie. Sounds good to me. Do you want one, too?

[Heath and Daphne]

Yeah. Which is, you know, when we look back at the text where he said, I'm feeling kind of sick or I'm feeling kind of dizzy or whatever, he said, he's kind of saying, yeah, I feel that Too. How weird. Trying to act like it's normal and you're fine. You're fine.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, it's happening to me too. So you're. You'll be totally fine, which it certainly.

[Heath and Daphne]

Wasn'T, you know, and he's. He's very much playing mind games. And it gets worse with this whole, you know, him trying to convince her to have a smoothie. He's gonna keep doing that in different ways. So the day before she slipped into a coma, Jim continued to ask Angela if she wanted any food or drinks, offering her Chick Fil A. But Angela said that she wanted to order a sandwich from the hospital. He also reminded her that she had Crystal Light back at their house and that he would be happy to make her a fresh drink with ice and bring it to her.

[Wanda Sykes]

Of course he would.

[Heath and Daphne]

Jim, again trying to make it sound appealing. Ah, Fresh drink with ice. Doesn't that sound nice when you're feeling sick and nauseous? And at one point, when she requested a meal from Panda Express, he prodded her, making sure she didn't want anything to drink.

[Wanda Sykes]

As mandated reporters, the nurses had tipped off the police after speaking with Ryan. And the investigation into Angela's murder had begun before she had even passed away. Detectives arrived at the hospital to speak with Jim that same day, but it was too late for him to cover his tracks. And sadly, it was also too late for Angela. Angela was declared brain dead and was officially declared dead on March 18, 2023, at 4:29pm and mere hours later, Jim was arrested and charged with her murder. Now, according to the arrest warrant, investigators first believed her death to be a result of poisoning by both cyanide and arsenic. But when Angela's autopsy was completed, her cause of death was ruled to be a combination of tetrahydrosyline and cyanide that had killed her. The former is the active ingredient in eye drops. And disturbingly, her cyanide levels actually increased at the hospital, leading investigators to believe that Jim was continuing to drug her through the food and drinks that he was bringing her, ensuring that her condition would only worsen.

[Heath and Daphne]

Which is pretty wild that she is in a place that is trying to take care of her, and he is sneaking in there and trying to get more and more poison to finish the job instead of, like, getting scared and backing down. But he's just going, going, going, going.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yes, he is. Well. An exhaustive search of the Craig home, as well as Ryan and Jim's office followed. And Jim's digital footprint revealed a sloppy trail of evidence that led Investigators right back to him. On February 27, 2023, Jim created the Google username jimandwafflesmail.com and under that username, detectives found disturbing searches such as how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human? And is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?

[Heath and Daphne]

There it is.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yup. And he also searched on YouTube, watching a video entitled Top 5 Undetectable Poisons that show no sign of foul play.

[Heath and Daphne]

Why is that video on YouTube?

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, seriously, that's kind of ridiculous that that's even on YouTube. But he also watched a video about fatally toxic plants.

[Heath and Daphne]

So he's trying to figure out the best way to go about this.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. And then that same day, he also ordered arsenic on fucking Amazon, completing an order of 10 grams of arsenic metal, 99.9999% crystalline metalloid, which was shipped directly to the home that he shared with Angela, by the way. And its purpose is listed as element collection. But of course, Jim had other uses for it.

[Heath and Daphne]

After ordering the arsenic and researching toxic plants, Jim also ordered oleandrin, which is an extract from oleander, which is a poisonous plant. So, again, he's trying different things here. But when this oleandrin did not arrive as quickly as he liked, he instead ordered potassium cyanide from a medical supply company. And of course, that had to be delivered to his place of business. This order was placed on Thursday, March 9, after Angela had returned home from her first stint in the hospital. When the arsenic had not completed the job he bought it to do, an employee from the company reached out to Jim, asking about the purpose of the cyanide as they do, which would require a usage statement. And he wrote back in an email from his Jim and Waffles Gmail account, quote, I am a surgeon and I perform craniofacial reconstruction. Rarely, the prosthetics that we use contain metals that patients are intolerant to, causing a severe localized contact immune response. We are investigating whether electroplating with a thin layer of alternative metals will eliminate this problem. This chemical is part of that process. He also included his medical license number and professional email address and requested that the potassium cyanide be overnighted, claiming that he was teaching a class over the course of the next two days, on Friday and Saturday, the 10th and 11th of March, and that he wanted to demonstrate this process. And as you can guess, none of this was true. And then Ryan confirmed to the police that there was no need for this chemical compound in their dental practice. As you can imagine, Angela's kids and family were horrified at this time. With no real answers yet. And through their shock, they released a statement to memorialize Angela, saying, we are all heartbroken over the loss of our sweet Angie. She was deeply loved by both the Prey and Craig families, and this is a very difficult time for all of us. We thank God for the knowledge that we will be able to be reunited with her someday. We are overwhelmed by the love and service extended to us by those who knew and loved her here in Aurora. We are so grateful for the compassion and concern everyone has shown for Angie and would ask for your continued thoughts and prayers. We also invite you to allow us some time to mourn her passing in privacy.

[Wanda Sykes]

Well, then came another bombshell revelation. Jim had been embroiled in the early days of an affair. Jim met Karen Kane on February 23rd of 2023, just weeks before Angela's murder at a dental conference in Las Vegas. Karen, an orthodontist from Austin, Texas, was in the midst of a divorce from her husband of nearly 30 years, and she and Jim spent three days together at this conference. They were apparently never physical, but Jim was smitten. Karen maintains that he told her that, you know, he was also in the middle of a divorce at the time and that Jim claimed that he had moved into his own home.

[Heath and Daphne]

Eh, didn't happen.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, that never happened. Well, in a subsequent interview with abc, Karen said, if I had known what was true, I would have not been with this person. Well, obviously, after this chance encounter in Las Vegas, the two kept in touch, talking every day until his arrest, even making plans to see each other. Karen actually flew out on March 8, the day before Angela entered the hospital for the second time, and claims that they met up multiple times over the course of those two days.

[Heath and Daphne]

This is insane. Like, he literally was seeing a different woman while she. While giving his wife a poison protein shake the day she gets back from her trip.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, it's. It's very insane. Well, she also had tickets to visit him again from March 16th to the.

[Heath and Daphne]

20Th, which is kind of weird that she left and then came back a week later.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, but on March 16th. So the day that she was supposed to travel and the day when Angela's condition grew dire, Karen emailed Jim rethinking this trip. She wrote, quote, hi, honey. I'm so sorry for what has transpired this week in your world. I'm sorry I'm not a part of your world to be more help to you, and instead, I'm pulling you away. This is so hard. I want to be and do whatever I can to support and encourage you. And I don't want to add to what has become an incredibly difficult time. I can't imagine what this is doing to you to have to walk your kids through this. I do want to give you any comfort I can, But I do not feel it's right for me to mix in with all of those gathering to mourn Angela either. And I don't want to meet your family as a friend and try to conceal what I feel for you. I'm praying for you and seeking God's wisdom for this time. I love you. But strangely, when they spoke of Angela's condition, Karen recalls that he seemed unbothered and unconcerned. She was cooperative with the police when questioned and swore that she would have never had anything to do with a plot that involved cheating or murder. So she has been ruled out as a suspect. Now, on top of all of this, detectives uncovered Angela's life insurance policy, which sat at a whopping $3.4 million. The comprehensive 52 page affidavit released after his arrest described the murder as heinous, complex, and calculated and alleged. Jim has shown the planning and intent to end his wife's life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected, providing her poisons that align with her hospitalized symptoms, and working on starting a new life. In October of 2023, Jim, of course, pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife, Angela Craig.

[Heath and Daphne]

And I just wonder how many less murders we would have in this country if life insurance policies could not go up to something like $3.4 million or even over a million, because we see this so often. And knowing that their relationship wasn't going well either, but also knowing how much of a disappointment he probably felt, you know, putting the family in so much debt, having kids to take care of. Not that just about anybody. Like, I would never do this. I don't care how much debt I'm in. I wouldn't kill you to get out of debt, you know, like, I would never kill you, Heath, my husband, or anybody. So you have to be a certain type of person anyway to be driven to that.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah. And in Jim's mind, this is a complete win win for him. Not only does he get out of debt, but now he can be with his mistress.

[Heath and Daphne]

Right. But it's. This shouldn't be allowed to happen. You shouldn't have a win win scenario for murdering somebody and seldom do they actually get away with it anyway. But then it's even more pointless because it's like, well, now you're in prison for life. And your kids don't have a mom anymore. And of course, a woman lost her life horribly. So I just wonder. I don't know, this made me think. I wonder how much less murder we would see if this was not an option.

[Wanda Sykes]

Well, as we know, financial motive when it comes to murder tends to be a very big subject. But get this, guys. Even after Jim's arrest, he didn't give up his crusade to take down anybody who stood in his way of his path to freedom.

[Heath and Daphne]

This man is so petty. So in November of 2024, which was supposed to mark the beginning of Jim's trial, prosecutors announced that he was facing even more charges. A felony charge for the murder of four people, as well as solicitation to commit perjury and murder. So one of his targets of these, One of these four people that he was trying to murder was the lead detective investigating Angela's murder. James wrote from prison, quote, the worst, dirtiest detective in the world is on my case. Her name is Bobby Olson. We have to discredit her. Probably, by the way, the. The dirtiest, worst detective in the world because she's on to you and she's nailing you.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, because you know you're going down.

[Heath and Daphne]

Well, according to the new charges, Jim was attempting to hire someone to kill Bobby. A fellow inmate of his, Nathaniel Harris, even came forward to admit that Jim had offered him money in exchange for Bobby's murder. When Nathaniel was bonded out of prison by his daughter, Jim pressured her to help him smuggle a letter out of prison. And allegedly, he asked her to falsify documents to look as if Angela had been seeking out to poison herself. He is still trying to push that narrative. And he wanted Nathaniel's daughter to have someone falsify letters and journal entries, you know, of Angela's supposedly written about how she was suicidal, and then plant them at the Craig family home. Jim also attempted to find, quote, attractive women who would be willing to testify that they had affairs with him and to allege that once Angela found out about the cheating, she had reached out to the women in an attempt to ask for their help in framing him for poisoning her, which the women had then refused to do. It's so complicated, so convoluted. He's trying to get people to make it seem like his wife gone girled him.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, he's doing everything he can to make sure that he doesn't go to prison forever.

[Heath and Daphne]

But all of this is coming to the light. So we're now knowing how much he is digging and digging, trying to get himself out of this, to make it look like he didn't do something that he very much did. Well, Nathaniel explained that Jim offered him $20,000 or, or free dental work for assistance in his murder for hire plot.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, let me, let me take some free dental work for killing someone. Free.

[Heath and Daphne]

Which dental work is expensive, but that's such a crazy way to go about it. Like, let me barter my dental work for murder, essentially. Well, after speaking with Nathaniel about his idea, Jim tried to involve his ex wife, Nathaniel's ex wife Casey as well. He sent her two letters, one of which was intercepted by the prison, offering her a blank check in exchange for help. Jim outlined his plan to have Casey concoct a fake posthumous friendship with Angela. Posthumous friendship. And even offered $20,000 each to anybody she could find who was willing to go along with this plan. Jim wrote that his freedom was riding on being able to find someone to say Angela was suicidal. This is also. I mean, this is literally right at a Gone Girl, because that's what happens in Gone Girl as well is, you know, well, I'm going to reference the movie, not the book. But Ben Affleck's character thinks that he, his wife had no friends. And then suddenly this neighbor comes by and says, no, well, you guys had problems. And I know all about everything that was going on. And he's like, what? Who the hell are you? He's literally taking from this book and movie trying to come up with anything.

[Wanda Sykes]

And I'm sure that's where he got the inspiration for this dumb ass idea.

[Heath and Daphne]

I truly believe that. Well, he also asked Casey to come forward to the district Attorney's office, as well as to his defense attorney, Harvey Steinberg. But Casey never even received the letter and didn't find out about it until police came to speak with her, collecting the letter unopened. Then, in another massive setback to his case, his attorney Harvey withdrew on the day that jury selection for Jim's trial was set to begin.

[Wanda Sykes]

In his withdrawal request, Harvey claimed that continuing to defend Jim's case would break two rules of conduct, including that the client persists in a course of action involving the lawyer's services that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent, and that the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers replacing repugnant or with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement. So basically he's saying, I'm not going to represent this guy because he keeps trying to, like, commit crimes.

[Heath and Daphne]

Have you ever heard of this happening? Because I haven't. Where a defense attorney is like you're such a bullshitter that I want nothing, nothing to do with you. I want no part of this.

[Wanda Sykes]

You don't often see that because usually the person that you know is, is coming up to their trial is trying to be on their best behavior because they don't want to continue doing crimes because it's just going to add to their time in prison. But you know, Jim is such an asshole that he thinks that by doing all of this stuff, he's going to somehow get away with all of this.

[Heath and Daphne]

Well, after this, Harvey was replaced by attorneys Robert Working and Lisa Moses. His defense team has hired their own toxicologists. But their only true defense is that there were no remnants of the drugs found in the Craig's home or Jim's office once the investigation began.

[Wanda Sykes]

I mean, obviously because he got rid of evidence.

[Heath and Daphne]

Well, right. But from behind bars, Jim also sought to take out another police officer, believe it or not, whose name has been given only as Officer Hillstrand, as well as two of his fellow inmates in prison, Roderick Crittenton and Tommy Nunneley. Like, give it a rest.

[Wanda Sykes]

I mean, yeah, this guy is just totally insane.

[Heath and Daphne]

The next hearing for Jim's case is set for April 7th. So a few weeks after this episode drops. And the trial is slated for this coming July of 2025. So we will keep you guys updated on that. And even though nothing will bring Angela back, we can only hope that her family, despite her kids now having lost both of their parents, will get some fraction of justice when he is put away forever. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to see photos from this case, head on over to our social. We're on Instagram oingwestpodcast. We're also on Facebook. And like Daphne said, that trial is coming up in July. So when we get more information, we will send it your guys way.

[Heath and Daphne]

Jim is truly one of the most unstoppable people we have talked about on this show.

[Wanda Sykes]

Yeah, no, literally, this guy doesn't know when to quit. That's why in the beginning of this episode I said he is one of the most evil people that we've talked about because. Because not only was he slowly poisoning his wife to death, but now he's also trying to murder other people from prison.

[Heath and Daphne]

It's wild. As if, as if that's really going to help him, but he has to have the last word kind of thing, you know?

[Wanda Sykes]

Well, I don't think he's going to because the justice system is definitely gonna have the last word.

[Heath and Daphne]

Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in again. Big thank you to Abby for recommending this case. We love you guys and we'll see you on Friday.

[Wanda Sykes]

So for everybody out there in the.

[Heath and Daphne]

World, don't be a stranger. Sa.

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[Heath and Daphne]

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